Jain Journal 1979 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 44

Muni Sri Mahendra Kumarji ‘Pratham'
Muni Sri Mahendra Kumarji 'Pratham', a well-known Jaina monk, passed away in Calcutta on April 5. He was 48.
Born in 1930, at Rajaldesar in Rajasthan, Muni Mahendra Kumarji was initiated into monkhood in 1941 when he was eleven years old. He had his initiation in the Terapanth Sect headed by Acarya Tulasi in which he lived the best part of his life. A few years before his death, he had some differences with his spiritual master so that he was forced to leave the order, but he continued to fulfil the same austere routine
as before so that he was held in high esteem by men and women of the Terapanth Sect who visited him frequently and paid their homage.
The life of a Jaina monk is very simple and unostentatious and so was that of Muni Mahendra Kumarji, but behind all his simplicity lay a great personality which was unique. He was also a great classical scholar with profound knowledge of Sanskrit and Prakrit, in which he could produce instant verses. Later he acquired a good command over Hindi and produced 27 parts of Jaina stories, some of which have been translated and printed in English. Muni Mahendra Kumarji was the author of many works, may be about 100, of which about 80 are already in print and the rest in the pipeline awaiting publication. He had a powerful memory which he had demonstrated at several places in the presence of distinguished gatherings and because of which he was called Satabadhani. A few years before his death, his followers and admirers conferred on him the title of 'Upadhyaya' and 'Adhyatma Yogi'.
Never robust, Muni Mahendra Kumarji had always a poor health and was suffering from several ailments. A few months before his deaih, he was a victim of an accident which must have hastened his exit from the world. We pay our homage to the departed soul.